Granada Mourns Death of Young Businesswoman

Friends and family are mourning the tragic death of beloved Granada resident and businesswoman Katty Anielka Traña Solorzano de Perkoff, better known as “Kathy” from “Kathy’s Waffle House.”

Kathy, 28, was found dead in her bed around 9:15 p.m. on Jan. 29. She had a gunshot wound in her chest. The case is being treated as a suicide, according to police spokesman Sub-commissioner Alonso Carrillo.

“I am clueless as to why she did this,” said her teary-eyed husband, “Sandy” Perkoff, 79, of New Orleans. “This is a total shock. Something, somewhere out there caused this, but I just don’t know what.”

Perkoff said Kathy had gone upstairs to watch her telenovelas when he heard the gunshot from downstairs.

Perkoff said he went up stairs to the bedroom and could see Kathy lying in bed with her back to the interior window facing the staircase, but the bedroom door was locked.

Perkoff called his driver, who came to the house and went in through the bedroom window and found Kathy dead.

Then they called the police, who took Kathy’s body to the Managua crime lab for an autopsy.

Perkoff ’s hands were also tested for gunpowder residue, to rule out foul play.

Sub-commissioner Carrillo told The Nica Times this week that, as of Feb. 1, the crime lab results were not back yet, nor had the autopsy results been provided. The officer said police will wait for the crime lab results before determining motive.

For Perkoff, the motive is also a mystery. He said that on the night her death, “There was no quarrel, no fight, no ‘I’ve met somebody else and I’m leaving you.’ Nothing like that.”

Perkoff said he kept two unloaded handguns in the house, along with a box of bullets. He said he never taught Kathy how to use the gun, and as far as he knows, she had never fired one previously.

While many questions remain, those who knew Kathy remember her for her eternal cheerfulness and the bouncy spunkiness that endeared her to so many. She was fluent in English and loved to exchange greetings and friendly conversation with friends, breakfast clients and strangers alike.

She was also a dedicated daughter and sister, who helped several younger family members find employment at her restaurant and always gave a large percentage of her arnings to her mother. Kathy was a good businesswoman, helping build Kathy’s Waffle House into a local institution over the past six years, drawing regular weekend breakfast crowds from as far away as Managua. She treated her workers kindly, which helps explain why the original staff has been working loyally at the restaurant since it opened.

When not tending the Waffle House, Kathy was an avid horse rider, participating in hipicas or going for long rides on her beloved black stallion “Lucero.”